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TABLE OF CONTENTS Goal of this document... 3 Open Hardware... 3 Operating System Requirements... 4 Supported OS... 4 Best Practice... 4 Server PC Requirements... 5 Cpu Selection... 5 Client PC Requirements... 6 Video Display Rate VS Cpu Model... 6 Combo: Server/Client PC Requirements... 7 Windows & Server Pre-Requisites (Preparing Windows For DigiFort)... 8 DigiFort Software Installation Pre-Requisites... 8 Video Display VGA Cards & Monitor Connectors... 8 Network Requirements... 9 Introduction... 9 Network Design Considerations... 9 1. Size and Scope:... 9 2. Bandwidth Requirements:... 9 3. Other Network Users and Applications:... 9 4. DigiFort Servers/Attached Storage Considerations:... 10 5. Power Over Ethernet Considerations:... 10 6. Wireless Considerations:... 10 7. E-mail Requirements:... 10 Anti-Virus Setup... 11 Windows Indexing... 12 Technical Support... 13 Contact Information... 13 Disclaimer... 13 2
GOAL OF THIS DOCUMENT This document is to provide guidelines on minimum requirements of the hardware & software to be used when considering, specifying and installing DigiFort IP Surveillance System. OPEN HARDWARE DigiFort supports and encourages the use of open hardware, meaning you can use network switches, computers & server grade components from any brand name manufacturer that meet the DigiFort s minimum requirements described within this document. 3
OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SUPPORTED OS DigiFort has been tested to work with the following Microsoft Operating Systems; Windows 2003 Server (RC2 Recommended) Windows 2008 Server Windows XP Professional (Any Service Pack SP3 Recommended) Windows Vista (Home/Professional/Business) NOTE: 64 bit Windows editions will work even though DigiFort is a 32 bit application. BEST PRACTICE To optimize the performance of windows read/write & hard-disk-drive read/write speeds. DO NOT use the windows hard-drive for camera recordings. Please leave windows hard-drive just for windows. DO NOT partition the OS hard-drive then use the partition for recording. All recording should go to any other physical hard-drive but not the OS hard-drive. 4
SERVER PC REQUIREMENTS Servers generally just record from cameras and allow connections for users. Servers are not to be used for video viewing & playback. NOTE: Specifications are based on 704x576x25fps motion recording. Motion uses more CPU power. CPU SELECTION 8 Cameras: P4 3.4Ghz 16 Cameras: Core 2 Duo E6400 32 Cameras: Core 2 Quad Q9450 40 Cameras: Core 2 Quad Q9650 or Quad XEON 3.0Ghz 1.333Mhz FSB RAM: 2GB VGA Card: Standard Hard Drive: DigiFort installation & logs use less than 100mb. Storage drives you can have as many as windows will support. NIC: Minimum 1 x 1 gigabit LAN CD/DVD: Optional Scenario: To record 200 cameras at 704x576x25fps on motion recording, you will need 5 servers with Quad XEON 3.0Ghz CPU s 40 cameras per server. 5
CLIENT PC REQUIREMENTS Workstation/client system requirements only, not to be used for recording streams. 8 Cameras: P4 3.4Ghz 16 Cameras: Core 2 Duo E6400 32 Cameras: Core 2 Quad Q9450 40+ Cameras: Core 2 Quad Q9650 or Quad XEON 3.0Ghz 1.333Mhz FSB RAM: 2GB-4GB (depends on number of cameras displayed at once) VGA Card: Late model GeForce or ATI PCI Express 256/512MB Hard Drive: DigiFort installation & logs use less than 100mb. NIC: Minimum 1 x 1 gigabit LAN CD/DVD: Optional VIDEO DISPLAY RATE VS CPU MODEL P4 3.4Ghz 6 Streams at 4CIF 25FPS or 12 Streams at 4CIF 12FPS 12 Streams at 2CIF 25FPS or 24 Streams at 2CIF 12FPS 24 Streams at 1CIF 25FPS or 48 Streams at 1CIF 12FPS Core 2 Duo E6400 12 Streams at 4CIF 25FPS or 24 Streams at 4CIF 12FPS 24 Streams at 2CIF 25FPS or 48 Streams at 2CIF 12FPS 48 Streams at 1CIF 25FPS or 96 Streams at 1CIF 12FPS Core 2 Quad Q9450 20 Streams at 4CIF 25FPS or 40 Streams at 4CIF 12FPS (and above) 40 Streams at 2CIF 25FPS or 80 Streams at 2CIF 12FPS 80 Streams at 1CIF 25FPS or 160 Streams at 1CIF 12FPS NOTE: Keep in mind that new processors are coming out frequently and this information will be outdated. Please use as a general guide. Generally, the CPU s can handle more, but it depends on other factors such as RAM, graphics card and video stream type (jpeg/mpeg/h264/etc). We have specified a smaller amount of streams to be safe, but the CPU s can probably handle several more. 6
COMBO: SERVER/CLIENT PC REQUIREMENTS All in 1 system, can record up to 40 cameras, but view only 16 cameras at 1 time. 40 Cameras: Core 2 Quad Q9650 or Quad XEON 3.0Ghz 1.333Mhz FSB At this point you may want to consider a more powerful server utilizing dual-xeon quad core technology ( 2 x cpu xeon 2.4ghz and above [8 cores / logical cpu s] ). RAM: VGA Card: Hard Drive: NIC: CD/DVD: 3GB Late model GeForce or ATI PCI Express 256/512MB and above DigiFort installation & logs use less than 100mb. Storage drives you can have as many as windows will support. Minimum 1 x 1 gigabit LAN Optional 7
WINDOWS & SERVER PRE-REQUISITES (PREPARING WINDOWS FOR DIGIFORT) Please ensure your Windows is; 1. Compatible with DigiFort. 2. Meets minimum requirements of DigiFort in terms of memory and CPU speed. 3. Has minimum, 1 gigabit LAN port available. (gigabit LAN is required for all servers/workstations) 4. Has all the required hardware drivers installed. 5. All power saving options are disabled. 6. Firewall must be switched off. (ensure your anti-virus software firewall is also disabled) 7. Storage hard-drives for footage are on separate physical disks from windows. 8. Setup your anti-virus software according to instructions in this document below. DIGIFORT SOFTWARE INSTALLATION PRE-REQUISITES Please ensure; 1. Your Windows & Server meet specifications 2. The license for DigiFort has been arranged. 3. You have all devices working such as storage arrays, NAS, iscsi, etc. 4. Your network is ready to go. 5. Your cameras are powered & setup accordingly. 6. You have all necessary usernames & passwords. VIDEO DISPLAY VGA CARDS & MONITOR CONNECTORS Minimum recommended resolution to use on DigiFort clients is 1024x768 at 32bit color. DigiFort can support multiple monitors. It will work on as many monitors Windows is able to detect. Use DVI or HDMI connections on high resolution monitors for optimum results & best quality (such as full HD 1920x1080 resolution). DigiFort recommends you use and/or specify ATI or NVidia PCI Express graphics cards, with at least 128/256MB minimum of memory. NOTE: Intel & S3 Graphics Card are not recommended to be used in workstations/clients. These graphics cards generally do not perform well for high display rate/frame rate. These however, can be used in servers that record the streams only. 8
NETWORK REQUIREMENTS INTRODUCTION DigiFort IP surveillance software utilizes standard based TCP/IP networks, home to enterprise grade switches & wireless link technologies available from variety of network product providers. Depending on the application and network specifics, DigiFort uses the following protocols for command and control and video transport: TCP/IP Unicast UDP/IP Unicast RTP/UDP/IP RTP/RTSP/TCP/IP HTTP/TCP/IP RTP/RTSP/HTTP/TCP/IP RCP +3 NETWORK DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Common considerations that should be taken into account when designing your network: 1. SIZE AND SCOPE: Will DigiFort reside on a Local or Wide Area Network? What is the connection type between the different sites (if any)? Is access via the Internet required? Is Multicast required, or can you use unicast efficiently? 2. BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS: How many IP cameras/encoders will you connect to DigiFort? Will you be using dual-streaming encoders or IP cameras? If so, what is the total number of video streams your network will need to support? What is the total number of multicast video streams your network will need to support? Which compression formats and quality settings will your encoders/ip cameras use? What is the typical bandwidth utilizations associated with these settings? How will the expected level of motion (or PTZ movement) affect those values? Estimate your systems expected bandwidth utilization. For large systems, consider partitioning the network into subnets/vlans to distribute the traffic in the most efficiently way across switches and routers. Keeping the number of devices per subnet to a reasonable size is generally a good thing to do; irrespective of whether video is being deployed. 3. OTHER NETWORK USERS AND APPLICATIONS: What percentage of the network s bandwidth can you dedicate for use by the video security system? 9
4. DIGIFORT SERVERS/ATTACHED STORAGE CONSIDERATIONS: Where will the servers/storage be located? Will the servers have enough bandwidth when activated? How do I design the network with redundancy and/or fail-over? 5. POWER OVER ETHERNET CONSIDERATIONS: Are PoE cameras/encoders a present requirement? Are PoE cameras/encoders a future requirement? Which PoE switches to use? 6. WIRELESS CONSIDERATIONS: Is any part of the network wireless? How many channels are available per wireless access point? Consider Wireless link bandwidth and utilisation capacity. 7. E-MAIL REQUIREMENTS: Do the system s users wish to use the e-mail notification capabilities of DigiFort? If this is the case, the system must have access to an SMTP server. 10
ANTI-VIRUS SETUP This section describes DigiFort s recommendations for users who wish to install an anti-virus software on a computer (client or server) running the DigiFort software. Customers should be aware that a variety of anti-virus software is available; therefore full set of instructions can not be provided, but only a recommendation guide. The following recommendations below, assume that the DigiFort software is installed to the default path set by the DigiFort Installer. When configuring the anti-virus software Disable the firewall included with the anti-virus software. Configure rules for Real time scans and Scheduled scans. Exclude the following locations for the client and server : The DigiFort system folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\DigiFort\) The Windows Paging file (e.g. C:\pagefile.sys) Exclude the following locations for the server: The drives or folders used for video storage (e.g. Y:\Camera1, Z:\Cameras) NOTE A common mistake is configuring exclusions for Auto-Protect, and forgetting to exclude scheduled and manual scans. Another common mistake is specifying the wrong path to the actual DigiFort folders that need to be excluded. For example: you may exclude C:\Program Files\DigiFort\ when the actual installation path is E:\Program Files\DigiFort\. While the scenarios here are given with the default installation path, please remember that the DigiFort installation path can be modified by the user during the installation. IMPORTANT The above steps will improve read/write speeds of data to the hard-drive. Usually, anti-virus software will scan files on read & write access, therefore disabling the locations that get accessed frequently through DigiFort, will improve performance. 11
WINDOWS INDEXING To improve disk access read/write speed, it is recommended to disable windows indexing on all storage volumes used to save camera data. What is Indexing Service? Indexing Service is a base service for Microsoft Windows 2000 or later that extracts content from files and constructs an indexed catalog to facilitate efficient and rapid searching. http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/ms689718(vs.85).aspx Indexing puts un-necessary load on the server, and disabling this function will improve hard-drives read/write speed as well as free some cpu load. 12
TECHNICAL SUPPORT First point of contact should be your reseller, as they may have the answers required. Only upon the request of your reseller should you contact Optiview Inc. directly. In most cases, the reseller will contact Optiview Inc. on your behalf. This way, the reseller will be educated to deal with previously unknown issues, therefore improving the support to their clients/customers. For issues with network connectivity, contact your local IT staff to resolve your internal network connectivity router or firewall issues. For distributor/reseller technical support & questions, contact the Optiview Inc. technical support team through email/phone according to your region. CONTACT INFORMATION United States Optiview USA 5211 Fairmont Street, Jacksonville, FL 32207 Sales@optiviewusa.com Tech@optiviewusa.com Sales Tel# 1-904-805-1581 Technical Support Tel# 1-904-855-1121 DISCLAIMER 2008-2009 Optiview Inc. All rights reserved. By providing this document, Optiview Inc. is not making any representations regarding the correctness or completeness of its contents and reserves the right to alter this document at any time without notice. 13